Adult sentence for J. S. R. in Creba killing

Citizens of Toronto have a right to walk the streets free of the "inexcusable violence" that claimed the life of Jane Creba, a judge said yesterday as he sentenced to life in prison the first man convicted in her Boxing Day 2005 shooting.

Jorrell Simpson-Rowe, seen here in a photo used as evidence in his second-degree murder trial, should be eligible to apply for parole in less than four years.

By:Peter SmallCOURTS BUREAU, Published on Sat Apr 25 2009

Citizens of Toronto have a right to walk the streets free of the "inexcusable violence" that claimed the life of Jane Creba, a judge said yesterday as he sentenced to life in prison the first man convicted in her Boxing Day 2005 shooting.

Jorrell Simpson-Rowe, 21, whose identity can be made public now that Justice Ian Nordheimer sentenced him as an adult for the crime he committed as a youth, will be eligible to apply for parole in less than four years but will be monitored for life whatever the result.

In December, a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder in the brazen shootout that claimed the life of the 15-year-old Riverdale Collegiate student as she walked among throngs of Boxing Day shoppers.

"The residents of this city are entitled to expect, indeed they are entitled to insist, that they be able to go about such ordinary activities in relative safety and not be faced with the type of inexcusable violence that was unleashed by Mr. Simpson-Rowe and his associates," Nordheimer said.

Simpson-Rowe hunched forward in his prisoner's seat and glanced at his lawyers as his fate became clear.

Defence lawyers Gary Grill and Mara Greene had argued that Simpson-Rowe be sentenced as a youth, where the maximum jail time he would serve would be four years, followed by three years in the community.

But Nordheimer said yesterday that would mean Simpson-Rowe would have to serve only eight more months in jail, since he has already spent three years and four months in pre-sentencing custody.

The judge rejected defence arguments that he need not credit Simpson-Rowe for any of this "dead time" and could impose the full four-year youth jail sentence, thus keeping the killer away from an adult penitentiary and maintaining the publication ban on his name.

"I believe that a youth sentence would fail to address the seriousness of the offence and Mr. Simpson-Rowe's role in it," Nordheimer said yesterday.

The jury must have concluded, the judge said, that but for the fact that the then 17-year-old Simpson-Rowe fired the shots he did, the opposing shooter would not have fired the large-calibre bullets he did, one of which killed Creba. The jury also convicted Simpson-Rowe of aggravated assault in the wounding of two men.

The judge said he is sympathetic to Simpson-Rowe's difficult background, with its broken home and indifferent mother. "A proper recognition of, and genuine concern for, those failures, however, cannot be allowed to cloud a proper appreciation of the high degree of culpability that attaches to his acts or of the continued risk that Mr. Simpson-Rowe poses to society," he said.

Although Simpson-Rowe did not bring a gun to the shootout but was handed a 9mm semi-automatic pistol by another participant, leaving him only an instant to consider what to do, that does not excuse his decision to fire between two and seven times, Nordheimer said. "The moral culpability of Mr. Simpson-Rowe's actions in that regard is, in my view, very high."

His conduct was made worse by the fact that at the time he was prohibited from possessing weapons and banned from that area of Yonge St., the judge said.

Nordheimer noted that a psychiatrist found his risk of reoffending high.

"His attitude through most of his teenaged years appears to have been very much one of not just `me first,' but one of `me only.' This attitude emerges still."

Homicide Det.-Sgt. Savas Kyriacou, the lead investigator in the Creba slaying, said outside court: "We are very pleased with the outcome."

He said the Creba family has expressed satisfaction with the sentence.

"They are thankful for the result."

At one point yesterday, Simpson-Rowe's lawyers tried to block the publication of his name – normally automatic when a youth is sentenced as an adult – saying it would put him in danger from penitentiary prisoners when they learn he gave a lengthy statement to police.

But, within minutes, Grill announced that his client had instructed him to abandon the motion.